Here’s what New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels had to say during his media interview session on Wednesday, June 10th, 2026.
On what he’s seen maybe a year ago to now as far as coming into these types of things with what the team is able to do offensively:
“Well, I mentioned it last week, about Drake, but I think it probably holds true to most of the group. There was only a couple guys that had ever been in our language, in our system, prior to last season. So I think like anything, it’s your second year doing something, more comfort level across the board. I think guys know the words, what they mean to them, how to use it to their benefit. And you can just see, I think, the growth of the group together. And, yeah, it just seems like we should be. I mean, that’s the reality is when you return a good portion of guys, and you have some continuity on the staff and on the team, you should have an opportunity to feel better, execute better, and hopefully improve across the board. They’re working really hard at it. I know that. The attitude’s been great, and I’m looking forward to finishing up the spring and heading into the summer.”
On the fact he’s worked with a lot of quarterbacks in your career, and where does Drake stand in terms of his ability to absorb and grow with the information that he gives him in terms of taking it to the field:
“He’s pretty good. He’s pretty good. He’s really smart and he works hard at it. I said this last year, he asks a lot of really good questions because he’s thinking ahead. The game makes sense to Drake. That’s probably, I’d say, comes a lot from his father, and just having a chance to grow up in that kind of a household and have those conversations. Yeah, he’s a quick processor. He’s a quick study. He learns and takes things to the field pretty quickly.”
On how rare it is to be able to think ahead in terms of quarterbacks:
“Yeah, it’s a benefit. Because I think part of our game, whether we like it or not, is sometimes it’s the hardest part for us, is you put a game plan together or you’re doing something, but you have to see some of the obstacles that aren’t necessarily right in front of you. In order to do that, you’ve got to think a couple steps ahead. So, yeah, he’s still a young player, but I’d say he’s, really at an accelerated rate when it comes to his processing.”
On his memory, sometimes you hear about quarterback, coaches, they just have this sort of otherworldly memory. Has he noticed anything about his memory that has surprised him:
“Yeah, it’s pretty good. Nothing surprises me with him anymore because he’s— that’s kind of how it’s been since I’ve met him. He’s got great recall. He, some of us, I don’t know how many in this gaggle of people, may or may not have to take a bunch of notes in college or as we were learning. I don’t know how many notes he has to take. He’s a processor while you’re talking about it. You know what I mean? He does, he takes notes, but he processes through the conversation and he can see the game as you’re talking about it, which is cool because what everybody, there’s this part, but there’s also that part on game day where we can’t go into the meeting room, watch the film, put it on a whiteboard. It’s verbal, it’s all verbal, other than maybe seeing a little something on the tablet. So it gives you an opportunity to make some quick adjustments and corrections, but his memory is really good.”
On what goes into an optimal quarterback/wide receiver relationship and the relationship developing between Maye and A.J. Brown
“I think any – I mean, the receivers want to get open and catch the ball, and the quarterback wants to get it to them. I think that’s the simple part. I think the working together and the understanding one another and what one’s capable of, and what the other one wants. When the quarterback is looking for something to make him comfortable, and the receiver thinks he can do this, I think it just— there’s a dynamic there. It’s fun to go through that process of building that, especially with two very talented players. I would say that that’s probably the case for our entire skill group, though. They’re all doing that right now. They take reps with each other. Sometimes it’s the first rep they’ve had at something. Sometimes it’s the 7th or 10th or whatever, and you can just see the growth as they do it. So more repetitions build great habits. That’s what we’re out here trying to do. And I think those two are hard at work at trying to do the same thing.”
On the fact if this receiver group reminds him of the 2019 group, and how does he go about managing a room with so many talented players:
“I don’t know if it reminds me of any group. But, I mean, there’s a lot of guys that can do a lot of interesting things. the good thing is, is really there’s not— I don’t know that there’s two guys that are really close to being the same. They all offer different things, different abilities, different skill sets. Our job is just to try to figure out how to put them out there and let them have an opportunity to do those things as much as we can. There’s two other skill groups that are involved in that conversation too with the tight ends and the backs, and you guys have seen those guys too. So, look, it’s fun. This time of the year is really good because everybody gets an opportunity to rep and learn and make mistakes and then correct it and then learn from it and get better. So that’s what we’re trying to do. And, at the end of August, as we head into the regular season, hopefully we figured out the best way to do it with the group.”
On what he’s learned about A.J. in the short time that he’s been here:
“Very smart. Really enjoys the game of football. And you could just tell that he’s had a great deal of experience at a high level, whether that’s route technique, understanding coverage, releases, top of the routes, how to do certain things, in situational football, whatever it might be. He’s certainly had a great deal of high-level experience. You can feel that when you talk to him, but he’s also really intelligent, understands the game, his position, what it takes to be successful. So it’s been awesome. I’m excited we have him. Looking forward to continuing to build our relationship and continuing to get him acclimated to our offense.”
On the fact Mike said yesterday that he and Ashton [Grant] were working with Drake on limiting mistakes at the line of scrimmage, and how has he seen him progress there:
“Yeah, I think that’s much the same as what we talked about with everything else that he’s doing. He’s further ahead in that regard. There’s nothing worse for an offense than negative plays. They kind of, they put you in bad situations and we saw that last year, when that happened to us, it’s hard to overcome those things. I don’t care who you are. So, we’re just, we’re trying to do what we can at each position, not just at quarterback, but certainly he has a say in all of those. And so I think his comfort level, I think his maturity and understanding of how bad those things are for the offense. I think that’s taken a huge step forward. He understands it, he gets it. And so through that, hopefully we’ll be much improved in that area when we get to the regular season.
On the fact that when he talked last week about A.J. Brown, the physical comparison to Gronk [Rob Gronkowski] was maybe the closest thing, and when he looks at that, if that leads him to ‘I gotta hunt mismatches for this guy because of the size and strength?’ and while it’s early in the process, if that’s something that goes through his brain when it comes to A.J.:
“It depends. It depends on what kind of defense you’re talking about. Is it a team that plays a lot of man-to-man, zone? Who are the corners? How do they play? I’m sure he’d probably be the first one to tell you that he is a mismatch. So I’m not sure how long I have to hunt for him, but I understand the level of player, the scheme, how they try to take, players away or at least limit them. That impacts all of our decisions every week and how we go about trying to create the best offensive performance for our team. So I think all of that stuff honestly will kind of play out as we go. I think right now the biggest thing for us is, learning multiple positions, being able to handle moving around, understanding what we’re doing. How does it work with the quarterback? Getting acclimated in that regard so that we’re able to do those things if and when we need to, you know? So, but I don’t think that process is going to take long. He’s a very quick learner. And like I said, he’s a true pro.”
On how he feels Drake, in a couple of those situations yesterday, it looked like he was kind of hurried to the line but then didn’t hurry to snap it, and does he have some freedom there to maybe decide what to do in those moments and how did he handle it:
“Yeah, I think he’s getting— I mean, I hope he’s getting better at everything, and that’s one of them, Phil [Perry]. The quarterback at the line of scrimmage, you can do two things. You can tell them that they don’t have much freedom and responsibility, and just tell them to snap the football and hope for the best, and try to execute as best they can. Or you can, if they’re capable and able and willing and want to and can do it at a high level, you can give them some tools for them to try to use to help us in every way, whether that’s get out of a bad one, run a good one, whatever. And I think Drake’s clearly capable of helping the football team in multiple situations like that. I think he’s definitely making progress in that area. I think his overall command and leadership in general is taking a big step forward. Really, really happy with his progress in that regard.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This transcript was done based on the available footage and is subject to typographical errors. If you spot anything, please let me know in the comments below.)
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
